During the recent crisis in Haiti, one of the options considered for emergency housing was to use empty shipping containers. Treehugger had a great article that considered the pros and cons, before ultimately concluding that the idea was inadequate, and would ’cause tragic consequences for generations to come.’

However, there are 30 million empty shipping containers in the world, and whilst they may be considered inadequate for those in Haiti, Olgga Architectes, a French architecture firm, believe they will do just fine for student accommodation.

As the images show, the design of the building is quite striking. Constructed from 100 containers stacked on top of each other, each one is a separate room, with a variety of layouts available:

Reusing shipping containers in architecture is hardly groundbreaking, but the design of this building is bold, and if the containers are refurbished well enough and provide a decent standard of living, this building could offer affordable accommodation not just for students, but for everyone.